Unacademy raised $880 million from investors and is being sold this week for $218 million.

That 90% valuation collapse gets your attention but the detail is more instructive…

The buyer’s primary interest is the cash still on the balance sheet: roughly $100 million of investors money that Unacademy didn't spend.

Unacademy peaked at $3.4 billion in 2021 on the back of pandemic-driven online learning demand but students went back to classrooms and revenue fell in double-digits every year since.

India's edtech boom produced three things:

• a generation of online learners,

• a graveyard of inflated valuations, and

• one very clear lesson about the difference between a category moment and a durable business.